Settled Enough: Immigration Status and Child Settlement Under the Hague Convention

Hearing the term “child abductor” paints a shadowy figure within the mind, immediately invoking disdain and revulsion. But when the perpetrator is one of the parents, the shadow dissipates, and complications arise. These complications turn thorny when the parent absconds with the child to another country entirely, leaving behind the child’s old life—including the remaining parent. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (Hague Convention) established procedures to ensure that children who were wrongfully removed from their habitual residence to foreign countries could be promptly returned. In Figueredo v. Rojas, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit addressed two issues under the Hague Convention. First, the court decided whether and how immigration status affects settlement decisions. Second, the court clarified its standard of review for the district court’s determination whether a child is “settled” within the meaning of the Convention.